Broadcast radio has been known in the prior art for over a century. More recently, broadcast radio stations have been streaming digital versions of their broadcasts on the Internet, and users are able to listen to those digital versions using a web browser or other application on a device connected to the Internet.
Because broadcast radio stations traditionally are local in their physical reach and in their content, it is sometimes desirable to filter out certain content from a broadcast radio program before streaming it on the Internet. For example, a program may comprise a host talking and the playing of music, local advertisements, and local weather, and traffic announcements. This content is useful for actual broadcast, since the audience is located in the same area for which the content was generated. However, it is less useful for an audience of Internet streaming, as the audience can be located anywhere in the world.
The prior art therefore contains attempts to alter broadcast content for an Internet audience. In FIG. 1, radio feed processing system 100 is depicted. A radio station includes data source 110 that generates data 115, which can be a radio feed. Data 115 can comprise a host talking as well as music, jingles, advertisements, pre-recorded content, weather and traffic announcements, and other content. Data 115 undergoes manual processing 120 by a human being. Manual processing 120 may include turning a recording on and off whenever the host starts or stops talking or when an advertisement or local content plays, or a human being might modify data 115 using computer software. The end result of manual processing is digital program 130 (which can be either streamed or downloaded), which is a filtered version of data 115. For example, digital program 130 may include only the talking by the host from data source 110 and nothing else. Notably, digital program 130 may be imperfect if the human made a mistake during the manual processing 120. In addition, digital program 130 will be a significantly delayed version of data 115, as time is required for the human to perform manual processing 120. The delay typically is several hours.
Radio feed processing system 100 is an imperfect, time-consuming, and expensive system, and many broadcast radio stations do not have the resources to engage in such activities to create digital program 130.
What is needed is a system that can process data automatically, with minimal processing delay, to remove certain content and to send the result to a user in a real-time, near-real time, or delayed manner as requested by the user. What is further needed is the ability to add new content that is customized for a particular user to the data.